Climate activists have dedicated enormous resources to convincing President Obama to reject TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline because of their concerns about climate. So it irrational for TransCanada to support the climate scare.

FILE -- A dump truck works near the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility near the town of Fort McMurray, Alberta on Sunday June 1, 2014. The furore over a New Democrat candidate's remarks about leaving a lot of Alberta's oilsands in the ground is a reflection of how poorly the issue is understood, say energy experts.JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS

A useful idiot is someone who supports one side of a philosophical debate while unaware of the agenda driving the ideology they promote.

The term was used during the Cold War to describe communist sympathizers in the West. They were accused of viewing themselves as standing for benign socialism and allies of the Soviet Union, when they were actually

scorned by the Soviets who used them as tools to help weaken democracies.

Environmentalists undoubtedly regard the federal government as useful idiots. Despite throwing billions of dollars into supporting the climate scare, the Harper government is despised by climate activists who fight them at every turn.

Similarly, global warming campaigners will never be friends with coal and oil sands industries, no matter what the latter do to support the climate cause. Companies cannot satisfy those whose ultimate objective includes eliminating their industries entirely.

So it is makes no sense for the Conservatives and industry to try to appease climate campaigners by using their misleading language. Yet they do all the time. Here are three examples.

With the new NDP government in Alberta considering early closure of its coal-fired electricity plants due to global warming concerns, the last thing the Coal Association of Canada (CAC) should do is encourage the climate scare. Yet on its Web site, the CAC assert:

“The coal industry recognizes GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions is an issue and continues to search for new and innovative ways to improve not only existing coal technologies but to develop new cleaner coal technologies.”

The implication is that GHG emission reduction will make coal stations cleaner. But, the CAC also explain, “the GHG that scientists are primarily concerned with is CO2.” Carbon dioxide (CO2) is not pollution and so is in no way unclean. The CAC should never reference clean coal when discussing climate.

Because oil sands production is more CO2 intensive than conventional oil production, climate activists have made shutting down the oil sands a key objective. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) must therefore do nothing to promote climate concerns. Yet CAPP assert: “Climate change is an important global issue, requiring action across

industries and around the globe. GHG from human activities are a significant contributor to climate change.”

Climate change is “global issue” only if it is driven by humanity’s GHG emissions. If it isn’t — and CAPP should do nothing to promote the idea that it is — then climate change is a regional problem, and each region should adapt to whatever is happening in their area, independent of global trends.

The reports of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change demonstrate that many climate experts dispute the idea that GHGs are a problem. CAPP executives are not qualified to judge these scientists wrong, and it sabotages their members’ interests to do so.

Climate activists have dedicated enormous resources to convincing President Obama to reject TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline because of their concerns about climate. So it irrational for TransCanada to support the climate scare.

Yet, on its Web site, the company proclaims: “TransCanada believes every individual, industry and government must be involved in managing/reducing emissions that contribute to climate changes TransCanada will facilitate the use of natural gas as a fuel source because it is less carbon intensive than other fossil fuels.”

TransCanada seem oblivious to the ultimate aim of climate campaigners — end all hydrocarbon fuel use.

These groups have obviously decided that it is not in their interests to contest the threat of CO2 emissions. But it is a serious strategic mistake to act as useful idiots helping feed the fires burning down their homes.

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Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition.

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